


Vulcan Kisses

by Arwen88



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Vulcan Kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-11 23:30:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13534848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arwen88/pseuds/Arwen88
Summary: During a visit from Jim on New Vulcan Spock reveals something he had tried to hide from him in the last years. But Jim, against all expectations, doesn’t get mad at him.





	Vulcan Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Cow-T and the Maritombola (prompt 9) of LDF. Proofread by Talpy because english is not my first language. All remaining mistakes are mine. Thanks to Yuppu for bearing with me.
> 
> Note: I’m looking for someone who could proofread my stories on Star Trek, let me know if interested maybe?

On New Vulcan they started constructing houses as soon as they landed, little things to be used while the population started to arrive, making sure the place would be hospitable for them. It took them a couple years to finally move there all the survivors from Vulcan and the vulcans that weren't on planet at the time of its end. Spock had been assigned a house on the outskirt of the new ShiKahr as per his request. While most vulcans wished to have their houses the most similar to the ones they had inhabited previously, Spock decided instead to recreate a house much more similar to the one where he had been raised by his parents. Sarek didn't utter a word when he had seen it, but after years of knowing his father - even if the vulcan wasn't exactly his father - Spock knew that he had been touched by his choice.  
There, when not busy with the council or advising his fellow citizens, Spock used the spare time he had to care about a small garden in the back of the house, created to resemble the one his mother used to love. Amanda had loved all plants and flowers and had spent much of her life tending to her garden, planting native vulcans plants alongside Earth’s and others from different planets. Sarek himself had often brought her one example or another from his travels, and Amanda had lovingly planted them, taking care of all her flowers in the afternoon when the sun would not be so hard on her pale skin.  
Slowly but steadily, the garden started taking shape under his old hands, helping him to relax when his mind was too busy with worries concerning the population, and sometimes his own existence in an universe he didn't belong to.  
His past life was gone, unreachable on the other side of a black hole alongside with everyone he had known in his life, his planet, his house; all lost except for a little bag of personal belongings he had been carrying when he had boarded the Jellyfish.  
Everyone he knew was either dead in his reality or trapped there, while here they were too young, and anyway, he had no right to tell them about his true identity.  
Except Jim Kirk and his own counterpart all of the Enterprise crew thought he was just another Vulcan ambassador. But then again he had found in time that those two were a source of joy in his late years. Young Spock was well aware that the two of them were different persons, their fate muted by the Narada incident, and had never asked him where his fate would lead him. On the other hand Jim was much more lively and often contacted him, curious about his counterpart in the universe Spock had left, about the father he had never met in his own life.  
Truth be told he had stopped asking about himself pretty soon, when he noticed - Spock wasn't sure how - that thinking about his old captain made him sad.  
Still the young captain often called him, just to talk, to know about how the construction of ShiKahr was proceeding and how Spock was dealing with life. If when he had been young the so called chit chat humans tried to involve him in used to bother him, he now found himself enjoying it. They reminded him of the long years spent alongside humans and the many conversations he had had with his captain.  
He looked forward to every call incoming from the Enterprise, even if with time he had started to worry a bit of how much his feelings for the young captain were growing. He had found no reason to pretend with himself - aging he had had very fewer reasons to do so - that it was a feeling of friendship what he had for the boy, not when his heart beat faster as the blonde boy smiled at him through the comm video. It had been so at the start, but with time it was morphing into something deeper and at the same time sweeter and sadder. He never thought the boy would reciprocate his feelings, never even dared to hope about it, and for that it was a sad feeling. At the same time he found there was something sweet in the knowledge that after all those years spent loving a man so different from the one he had met just a couple years before, loving him with all his heart without uttering a word about it so to not ruin their friendship - unsure of what the captain himself felt towards him - he had managed to get over those feelings just to fall in love back again with another man that shared the name and much more with his old captain, but was fundamentally someone else. He had been most fascinated by that development. Somehow what made him fall for the young boy was not the fact that he reminded him of the man he used to know, but precisely because he was different in a myriad of little things that managed to endear Jim to him.

When the call came from the Enterprise Spock hurried to answer, greeting Jim with his hand raised in the ta'al, his eyes crinkling at seeing the boy since then able to answer the greeting with ease.  
"It's good to see you, my friend."  
"The pleasure is mine." He slightly dipped his head, watching the captain open up in a smile.  
"Great news, Spock. We're to make route to New Vulcan in the next couple weeks. We have some things to drop by in there."  
"Do you?" Spock murmured, sitting straighter without even noticing. "Do you think you will be free for a tour of the city?"  
"I'd say yes, since we're scheduled for shore leave and I thought to use the stop at New Vulcan to let my men get their share of clean air." Jim chuckled, getting closer to his comm unit. "Do you think you'll be free to give me that tour?"  
"Yes." Spock dipped his head, trying to conceal the pleasure he felt at the prospect of seeing his friend in person. "If you have no other duties, or plans already made, would you consider playing a game of chess with me?"  
"I'm already there." Jim nodded eagerly, since they had always played only by comm up to that point, too busy with their respective jobs anytime they had actually met in all that time, and he had been practically on the verge of asking Spock for that game himself.  
"How long will you stay?"  
"Bones said I have to stay out the ship at least two days if I don't want him to bound me to a bed in sick bay and leave me in the hands of Chapel." He rolled his eyes.  
"You should take care of yourself." Spock tried not to smile. "What would your ship do without you?"  
"That's what I told him when he said that, but apparently he thinks I work too much."  
"You probably do, and I was confirming what the good doctor said about you probably needing a vacation, as a matter of fact."  
"Ah. Tu quoque, Brute." He rolled his eyes again, but shook his head with a soft smile.  
"I'm hardly your son, Jim." Spock chuckled. "And I assure you, I have no intention of stabbing you in the back."  
"I know. I trust you." Jim smiled, clearly happy of the incoming shore leave.  
"Will my young counterpart beam down too?" He asked, curious.  
Jim loved deeply how the vulcan with old age seemed not to care so much anymore about not showing his emotions, such a stark difference with the vulcan sleeping in the quarter aside his right that moment. He grimaced at the thought.  
"Yeah, he has some business to do with his father. He denies it, but I saw him stare at me with a bit of suspect when I said I couldn't wait to visit your new colony. He probably thinks I'll walk around leaving graffiti around the place. Or maybe shooting cans, I don't know."  
"I am sure he does not think that bad of you." Spock shook his head with a soft smile, fully knowing that his young counterpart had instead said that he found the captain's company enjoyable, even if he still thought him to be too impulsive. The first officer of the Enterprise had probably only thought of the breach in protocol for both the captain and the first officer being planet side at the same time. He himself had had to fight many times with his own captain over his decision to beam down together, even if after a while he had stopped fighting him on that: it seemed necessary to follow him down if he wanted to make sure the captain would go back to his ship on his usual shape and not wounded. Or at least wounded, but not dead.  
"I will make sure to prepare for your arrival, Jim."  
"See you soon, my friend." Jim smiled, raising his hand in the traditional vulcan salute.  
"Live long and prosper, Jim."

Jim had work to do once they arrived to New Vulcan, surveying the unload of goods brought to the colony and the safe arrival of the ambassador they had been carrying, but he couldn't avoid smiling at seeing the old vulcan he had been waiting to meet awaiting him.  
As soon as possible he left the remaining work in the hands of a subordinate and, as his first officer had already done, he started his shore leave as per his doctor orders. He marched straight to Spock and beamed at him, raising his hand in the customary greeting.  
"It's so nice to see you, Spock."  
"Likewise, my friend." The old vulcan answered with a warm look on his face. "Are you ready for that tour of the city or is there something else you wish to do first?"  
"Well, I have to admit that I wouldn't mind starting with something to drink." He chuckled. "This place is as warm as Vulcan I guess, and it's way too much for me." He admitted.  
Spock nodded at him, starting on the path towards the city as they entered a light and pleasant conversation about how the colony was doing and how the Enterprise mission felt to Jim.  
"When are we going to play that game of chess you promised me?" Jim asked at some point.  
"Whenever you want." Spock said, and Jim was able to see the corner of his mouth lift just a tiny bit. "If you prefer to start with that your visit on New Vulcan I would be more than happy to take you to my house."  
"Are you sure it's not a bother?"  
"Not in the slightest." He shook his head.

Jim admired the garden from inside the back door, surprised at seeing the many vulcan plants - for the most part little vegetation used to grow in a desert climate - growing alongside what he recognizes to be flora native of Tellar and from other planets. If he thought that sight would have made Sulu's day, he suddenly found himself smiling at noticing how many terran flowers there were in the middle of all of it.  
"Didn't know you liked gardening so much." He admitted, turning and nodding slightly when Spock handed him a cup of tea.  
"My mother used to love it. I am trying to recreate her garden as a way to celebrate her memory." He said, watching the flowers outside as he sipped his tea.  
Jim nodded, aware that he had said enough time how much he was sorry for the loss of the woman. Even if the one his first officer hadn't managed to save wasn't actually the one the old Spock had known, still he knew the vulcan felt the loss not only of his actual mother, but also of the one that had been living in the universe where he was now.  
"I must say that it gives me pleasure too." He admitted slowly, keeping for himself how he could feel the woman closer to him when he tended to roses just like the ones she used to care for in their garden on Vulcan.  
"I'm glad of it." Jim murmured, smiling when Spock glanced at him.  
"Would you like to play outside?"  
"Why not?" Jim nodded, putting down the empty cup and helping Spock move the chess board to the little garden table the vulcan had placed in the shadow the house threw over his little backyard. He then proceeded to set the game as Spock filled their cups again and took them outside.  
"How long will you stay planet side?"  
"A couple days. I thought of sleeping in the Starfleet's dorm down at the port, beds are tiny but at least the place is cool." He chuckled, letting Spock move first.  
The old vulcan considered it for a long minute as he watched Jim move. "You could also stay here, if you want." He murmured, not watching the man as he moved his pawn.  
"Here?" Jim asked surprised.  
"I have a guest room I rarely get to use." Spock smiled softly.  
"I'll think of it." Jim conceded with half a smile, still not wanting to impose himself on his friend. But he was visibly glad for the offer and launched himself in a discussion about how things were going under his command. Much of what he recalled, and lamented about, were things Spock had seen him being annoyed about even when Spock himself had been young and serving by his captain's side. But somehow it was at the same strangely different, with Jim having matured differently from the man Spock used to know, and the universe being shaped differently from the Narada incident this time around. Jim didn't even notice how Spock had been watching him with love in his eyes for the majority of the game, not taking his eyes off the board as the game proceeded. Until he ended up talking about his first officer.  
"You know, I don't think I'll ever have with Spock - my Spock - what I have with you." He admitted, throwing a glance at the vulcan sitting in front of him. At seeing the affectionate way he was looking at him, Jim wasn't able to avoid smiling softly himself. "I like what we have. And I know what you said about me and him becoming best friends and all that, but I'm not that sure that's gonna happen. He mostly look at me as if he needs to make sure I don't kill myself in some stupid way."  
Spock dipped his head slightly, the corner of his mouth lifting in a shadow of a smile, and for a moment he looked at their hands sitting next to each other on the little table, beside the chessboard. "I think you just need to give it time. I did not become friend with my James as soon as we met. And he does probably fear you dying on him, the same way I used to worry about my captain throwing himself at every danger that came our way. But, even if things were so drastically different in this universe, so much that you will never find a friend in him - and mind you I do not believe that could be possible - then... you will always have me." He murmured, his cheeks becoming a delicate shade of green as he brushed his index and middle finger across Jim's.  
Jim had no actual idea of what had just happened, but as he watched the vulcan blush in front of him, at the same time he felt a little thrill, a tingle that started from his fingers to travel up his arm, an entirely pleasant sensation that made him smile softly.  
"Thanks, Spock." He murmured, wondering if there was a meaning on what had just happened, but at the same time unable not to think that the old man was the greatest friend he could have ever had.

Jim followed Spock in the tour of the city when they resumed it in his second day of shore leave. When Spock was suddenly called to a meeting with the council, Jim told him not to worry about him, that he would manage just fine and they would meet again at Spock's house later. He was ten minutes in his solitary tour of the city when his path crossed with his first officer's and Jim waved at the vulcan with a big smile, jogging a little to reach the other officer.  
"Hey, Spock!"  
"Captain." The vulcan dipped his head, his hands behind his back as per usual.  
"Are you alone too? I was with Spock - the other one - but he was called to a meeting."  
"I was with my father and the same happened." The vulcan admitted, resuming his walk, Jim easily joining him.  
"Spock showed me where they are building back again the Vulcan Science Academy."  
"I visited the site too." Spock nodded, seemingly hesitating for a moment before posing a question, his voice slightly lower. "Is he finding life in the colony adequate?"  
Jim looked at his first officer for long seconds before nodding. "I think he is. Were you worried about it?"  
"It is useless to worry over something we have no power to change, but I have to admit that seen... my experience on Vulcan." He inclined slightly his head. "I was maybe a bit worried about if his own experience would have been pleasant."  
Jim didn't refrain from smiling at him. "You know, he would probably like to know that you worry about him."  
"I do not."  
"You just said-"  
"Vulcans do not worry."  
Jim rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Okay, sure." He shrugged, even if he suddenly found himself remembering exactly what had happened the previous afternoon. "Do vulcans blush?"  
"Excuse me?" Spock turned to look at him, one eyebrow raised.  
"Yeah, I mean... I think I saw a vulcan blush. They became all green." Jim cleared his throat, deciding that it would have been not to mention who said person was.  
Spock watched him closely, but after a moment he nodded. "It is unusual, since we learn to control our emotions since an early age, but I guess - given an adequate stimuli - even an adult vulcan could lose the control over the display of his emotion and - blush, as you called it. Obviously our biology works the same as per humans under that aspect, a rush of blood to the face, in our case will give it a green aspect." He nodded, giving the explanation an almost academic touch, even if glancing around as if afraid someone would hear him and chastise their argument.  
"Ah. Okay. And tell me, is there some specific connotation - cultural or biological, I'm not sure, in the touch of fingers?" He asked, since Spock seemed inclined in answering his curiosity for once.  
But then the officer's eyes became rounder and Jim could have sworn the vulcan had stopped breathing for the briefest moment.

“Spock, I guess there is a good reason for you to look like a deer in headlights.” He said when the moment of silence stretched a bit too much.  
Spock was so out of it that he didn’t even said his customary “I do not get human colloquialism, sir.”  
“I imagine it could only be because of my question, and so it probably means that I really have to know what actually happened in there.”  
That seemed to shake awake the vulcan as Spock straightened up, almost frowning at him. “Did a vulcan touch your hand, captain, or did you do it to one of us?”  
“No, I didn’t ran around molesting vulcans, Spock.” He sighed, leveling him with a look. “I just- it was just- this person.” He cleared his throat, feeling slightly uncomfortable. “This person touched my hand with two fingers and I’m pretty sure something happened that moment.”  
Spock looked at him with the previous almost frightened expression, even if for a moment - thanks to his intense study of elder Spock’s facial expressions - he could detect a light embarrassment in him. And a touch of something else that Jim had no idea how to interpret.  
Slowly, reluctantly, Spock started to tell him about the vulcan hands, and how they were sensitive. Highly sensitive. And how they could feel people’s emotions through the skin, how much that meant for a vulcan in a relationship. How they kissed. When Spock finally deemed his job done he was not the only one uncomfortable as Jim stood there not even wanting to watch his first officer in the eyes after just finding out how he probably had sex. And how his older counterpart had kissed him the previous afternoon.  
“Thanks, Spock. It was- much helpful.” He nodded, staring at Spock’s feet before saluting him and almost fleeing the scene.

Jim went looking for Spock as soon as the walk in the hot streets of the new ShiKahr helped him clear his mind. He was still a bit shaken up by what he had found out from the younger Spock, more than anything else surprised that the old vulcan could have been interested probably in more than a simple friendship with him.  
He found the vulcan in his house, having come back home after the council meeting.  
Spock needed only a glance at Jim to understand that he had found out exactly the nature of the touch he had dared the previous day.  
He straightened up, donning a severe look as he brought his hands behind his back. "Jim, I assume you found out about what I did yesterday, and I want to say that I am sorry. What I did was unfair towards you since I did not told you what exactly I was doing, much less I asked for your permission. It was beneath me, uncalled for, and you deserve much better." He said, looking Jim straight in the eyes, filled with shame where just the previous day he had felt daring. He was afraid of losing Jim's friendship with his act, afraid of losing the only things that really mattered to him, his trust and respect. "I want you to know that I never expected anything back, and I still do not wish for you to change the way you see me. I am happy that you would see me as your friend and I hope I did not jeopardize it."  
Jim let his shoulders drop at that speech and, as much as he had been confused by the knowledge of the meaning behind the kiss he had received, seeing his friend so bent over reassuring him that he didn't expect him to reciprocate, so sure that what he had done could have ruined their friendship, he just thought "fuck it."  
Without thinking more about it Jim stepped forward and pressed his lips on the corner of Spock's mouth, silencing the vulcan.  
Spock just stared at him, his eyes round in surprise, his mouth shut, and after a moment Jim chuckled softly.  
"You remind me of Spock just a couple hours ago. The same look of a deer that sees the approach of death." He joked, hoping he hadn't ruined everything himself.

At recognizing the worry under the joke, Spock took a deep breath and his composure crumbled as he watched the man without hiding anymore the feelings he had for him.  
"Jim..." He softly called as he tentatively raised his index and middle fingers together in the position for a vulcan kiss with a hopeful look in his eyes.  
This time Jim recognized it for what it was and smiled at the vulcan.  
Slowly he mimicked the position of his fingers before raising his arm. He watched as Spock's gaze became warmer, as his lips curled in an affectionate smile, and finally he brushed their fingers in his first real vulcan kiss.


End file.
